395 About the Contributors Ying Dai received her BS and MS degrees from Xian Jiaotong University, China in 1985 and 1988, respectively. After some years working in the same university, she attended Department of Information Engineering, Shinshu University, Japan in 1992. She had a Dr. Eng degree from Shinshu University in 1996. She was granted JSPS Research Fellowships for Young Scientists from 1995 to 1997. She joined the Iwate Pref. University in 1998. She has been an associate professor in the Faculty of Software and Information Science, Iwate Pref. University since 2002. Her main research interests are in the area of Pattern Recognition, Image Understanding, Kansei Information Processing, and Soft Computing Tech- niques. She is the member of IEEE, IEICE (the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers), and JSKE (Japan Society of Kansei Engineering). Basabi Chakraborty received B.Tech, M.Tech and PhD degrees in RadioPhysics and Electronics from Calcutta University, India. She worked in National Center for Knowledge based Computing Sys- tems and Technology affiliated to Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, India until 1990. From 1991 to 1993 she worked as a part time researcher in Advanced Intelligent Communication Systems Laboratory in Sendai, Japan. She received another PhD in Information Science from Tohoku University, Sendai in 1996. From 1996 to 1998, she worked as a post doctoral research fellow in Research Institute of Electri- cal Communication, Tohoku University, Japan (under Telecommunication Advancement Organization (TAO) fellowship for a period of 10 months). In 1998 she joined as a faculty in Software and Information Science department of Iwate Prefectural University, Iwate, Japan and currently an Associate Profes- sor in the same department. Her main research interests are in the area of Pattern Recognition, Image Processing, Soft Computing Techniques, Biometrics, Trust and Security in Computer Communication Network. She is a senior member of IEEE, member of ACM, Japanese Neural Network Society (JNNS) and Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ), executive committee member of IUPRAI (Indian Unit of Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence), IEEE JC WIE (Women In Engineering) and ISAJ (Indian Scientists Association in Japan). Minghui Shi received his MS degree in 2002 and Dr. degree in 2008 respectively from Jiangnan University and Xiamen University, China. He is currently an assistant professor at Xiamen University. In addition to working as a teacher, he is also a research member of Artificial Intelligence Institute of Xiamen University. His research interests involve Soft Computing Techniques, Machine Learning, Pattern Recognition, Information Processing in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), and Feature Selection. * * * Copyright © 2011, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. About the Contributors Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay did her B Tech, M Tech and PhD in Computer Science from Cal- cutta University, IIT Kharagpur and ISI respectively. She is currently an associate professor at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India. She has worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, University of Texas at Arlington, University of Maryland at Baltimore, Fraunhofer Institute, Germany, Tsinghua University, China, University of Rome, Italy and University of Heidelberg, Germany. She is the first recipient of the Dr. Shanker Dayal Sharma Gold Medal and also the Institute Silver Medal for being adjudged the best all-around postgraduate performer in IIT, Kharagpur, India, in 1994. She has also received the Young Scientist Awards of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), 2000, the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA), 2000, the Young Engineer Award of the Indian National Academy of Engineers (INAE), 2002, the Swarnajayanti fellowship from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), 2007, and the prestigious Humboldt Fellowship from Germany, 2009. She has authored/co-authored more than 175 technical articles in international journals, book chapters, and conference/workshop proceedings. She has delivered many invited talks and tutorials around the world, and has been the chair and member of several conference committees. She has published four authored and edited books from publishers like Springer, World Scientific and Wiley. She has also edited journals special issues in the area of soft computing, data mining, and bioinformatics. Her research interests include computational biology and bioinformatics, soft and evolutionary computation, pattern recognition and data mining. She is a senior member of the IEEE. Hisashi Bannai is a Senior Researcher of Rural Finance Research Institute in Japan. He got MS in the major of Social Economic Thoughts (1981) in Kokugakuin University, and PhD in the major of Re- source and Environmental Economics (2004) in Tohoku University. His careers as in rural research field were started as a Senior Researcher of Rural Finance Research Institute collaborating with Prof. Masao Miwa in Graduate School of Economics in Kokugakuin University (1994), doctor course researcher collaborating with Prof. Kazuo Morozumi in Graduate School of Agricultural Economics in Tohoku University (2000). He was awarded the JA Prize (2008) to explore for structural problems of Japanese agricultural cooperatives by Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives (Zenchu).Now, he dedicates his time to explore a new way of Revival for Japanese rural community applying a revival model based on American rural industry.Japan Siddhartha Bhattacharyya did his Bachelors in Physics, Bachelors in Optics and Optoelectronics and Masters in Optics and Optoelectronics from University of Calcutta, India in 1995, 1998 and 2000 respectively. He completed PhD in Computer Science and Engineering from Jadavpur University, India in 2008. He is currently a Lecturer in Computer Science and Information Technology of University Institute of Technology, The University of Burdwan, India. He was a Lecturer in Information Technol- ogy of Kalyani Government Engineering College, India during 2001-2005. He is a co-author of a book and more than 50 research publications. He was the member of the Young Researchers’ Committee of the WSC 2008 Online World Conference on Soft Computing in Industrial Applications. His research interests include soft computing, pattern recognition and quantum computing. Dr. Bhattacharyya is a life member of OSI and ISTE, India. He is a member of IAENG, Hong Kong and IRSS, Poland. Xiaoxi Chen was born in Xiamen, China, in 1989. He is a sophomore student in the School of In- formation Science & Technology, Xiamen University. In 2008, he joined the Artificial Brain Lab (ABL) 396 About the Contributors of Xiamen University, a Fujian Province Key Laboratory, and became the youngest member of ABL. In the lab, he studied with Professor Hugo de GARIS, generally recognized to be the father of the artificial brain. His interests include Artificial Brains, neural networks, GPGPU (General-Purpose computing on Graphics Processing Units) and CUDA parallel computing. Elisabeth Damour has a Master degree in International Marketing and in Russian Literature: she is a specialist of Chekhov’s dramas. She has run an artistic career as a dancer and collaborated with designers in London and in Saõ Paolo. She collaborates as a consultant in Innovation Programs and in the Master Certification in Paris Business Schools. She is a certified Trainer and Coach (member of ICF) in Process Communication, Frederic M. Hudson Institute. As an Expressive Art Therapist and a performer, she runs workshops in Japan and U.K. She is a member of the D. W. Winnicott Association, the Squiggle Foundation in U.K. She is a regular contributor to magazines and a conference speaker in Design International Conferences: in European – Helsinki, Berlin - and Japanese Universities in Sap- poro and Osaka. Madhura Datta is presently a Lecturer in UGC-Academic Staff College of the University of Cal- cutta. She did her MSc in Computer and Information Science from the University of Calcutta in 2002 and her M.Tech degree in Computer Science and Engineering in 2004 from the same University. She is pursuing her PhD work on face recognition. Yaokai Feng received his B.E. and M.E. degrees in Computer Science from Tianjin University, China, in 1986 and 1992, respectively. And, he received his PhD degree in Information Science from Kyushu University, Japan, in 2004. From 1986 to 1998, he was with the Department of Computer Engineering and Science, Tianjin University, China, where he was an assistant professor/lecturer and he was studying on fault-tolerant systems and database applications. During his doctoral course in Kyushu University, Japan, he was focusing his attention on the study of database. Now, he is with the Graduate School of Information Science and Electrical Engineering, Kyushu University, Japan, as an assistant professor and faculty of Information Science and Electrical Engineering. Now, his study interests include data- base (multidimensional indexing and searching, Kansei database, etc.) and pattern recognition (object recognition, localization, etc.). Hugo de Garis is a Full Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Artificial Brain Lab (ABL) in the Cognitive Science Department of the School of Information Science & Technology (SIST), Xiamen University,